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Zack Snyder's been a busy man - not only is he currently promoting his new Superman movie Man Of Steel but on the day of the premiere he also released a teaser trailer for his next comic book movie - 300. The director took to the blue carpet in London's Leicester Square on Wednesday night alongside Henry Cavill. But while the hype builds over the Henry Cavill film, he's already looking to the next as he gears up for the 2014 release of follow up movie 300: Rise Of An Empire, which he returned to albeit as a producer and...

He is the toast of the libertarian left and the libertarian right. But for most of the political establishment, across the ideological spectrum, it has taken only a few days to conclude that Edward Snowden is nothing less than a dangerous villain. If any part of Snowden hoped for a Pentagon Papers-style response to his leaks – a round of applause across Washington and New York at the daring revelation of secret national security information – this week certainly shattered any such illusion. Ask nearly anyone in a position of authority in Washington and you will get a similar judgment...

An Island in Michigan has kept Victorian-era charm thanks to its ban on motor vehicles and has become a huge tourist draw for its quaint ways. Motor vehicles have been banned on the island since the start of the 20th century after an automobile frightened some of the horses. These days, people still travel by horse-drawn carriage, as well as by bike and by foot. Mackinac Island, located off the Straits of Mackinac separating Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, was an important outpost in the region's fur trade, but that gave way to fishing and eventually tourism. Among the main...

As fighters with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement wage the battles that are helping Syria’s regime survive, their chief sponsor, Iran, is emerging as the biggest victor in the wider regional struggle for influence that the Syrian conflict has become. With President Obama set to host a White House meeting of top national security aides on Wednesday to reassess options in light of recent setbacks for the rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the long-term outcome of the war remains far from assured, analysts and military experts say. ......................................................... After videos surfaced in March of Islamist groups wielding antitank weapons...

Movies don’t come bigger than this, and zombie flicks tend to come an awful lot smaller. In Shaun of the Dead, the undead had to content themselves with snacking off a handful of British actors in a deserted pub. Here, it’s the future of humanity at stake. This time, Brad Pitt is here to save us, and the skies are soon full of crashing helicopters, screaming jets and stuntpeople being sucked out of aircraft. So what’s it like? Well, it’s awfully like all the epic action films made by Roland Emmerich, ranging from the nearly sublime (Independence Day) to the...

World War Z could be the most expensive flop in cinematic history. Brad Pitt's zombie action flick has been mired by negative publicity concerning rewrites, re-shoots and an inexperienced creative team that has caused the film's budget to increase from $170million to a reported $400million. Based upon Max Brooks's science fiction novel, the film now has the biggest budget ever recorded.

Money flowed, jazz music rang out, and fashionable young women in 1920s London, Paris and New York set aside behaviour previously deemed 'appropriate' in favour of high spirits, short skirts, hedonism and social liberation. These giddy, creative, enthusiastic women of the Roaring Twenties' were named 'flappers' because of their effervescent personalities. They were writers, actresses, painters, society heiresses, and they were a new breed of women typified by newly bobbed hair, thick make-up and predilections for smoking, drinking, dancing the Charleston... and then some. As Baz Luhrmann's new cinematic remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby prepares...

They are 1 percenters who are 100 percent despicable. Some wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they and their kids can jump to the front, The Post has learned. The “black-market Disney guides” run $130 an hour, or $1,040 for an eight-hour day. “My daughter waited one minute to get on ‘It’s a Small World’ — the other kids had to wait 2 1/2 hours,” crowed one mom, who hired a disabled guide through Dream Tours Florida.

I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay. I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.

he originally claimed that her sex tape was 'personal' and never intended it to be seen by the public. But it seems that former Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham has cashed in on the steamy video she made with porn star James Deen, reportedly selling the rights for nearly $1 million. According to TMZ, the 21-year-old secured the staggering deal with company Vivid Entertainment after months of negotiations.

Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who has repeatedly spoken out in favor of same-sex marriage, says he now worries that his career with the team may be on the line. On Sunday, Kluwe said he is starting to sense that rumors surrounding whether or not he will be released from the team will soon become ‘distractions.’ ‘It’s a shame that in a league with players given multiple second chances after arrests, including felony arrests, that speaking out on human rights has a chance of getting you cut,’ Kluwe told NBC’s Pro Football Talk via text message.

Sir Winston Churchill will feature on the new design of a banknote which will enter circulation in 2016, the Bank of England has announced. The wartime leader's image is planned to feature on the reverse of the new £5 note, together with one of his most celebrated quotations. Churchill was chosen owing to his place as "a hero of the entire free world", said Bank governor Sir Mervyn King. The current face of the £5 note is social reformer Elizabeth Fry.

Greece is planning to pursue a long-dormant claim for reparations from Germany over World War Two, a further strain on relations with Berlin, which foots most of the bill for its 240-billion euro rescue. The Finance Ministry has compiled a report that takes stock of all relating available documents spanning more than six decades, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos told parliament on Wednesday. It will be submitted to Greece's legal advisers and then Athens will decide how to officially press its claim, he said.

A new reality show focuses on five single moms-to-be who are on the lookout for love. Pregnant & Dating, which is set to air on WE tv on June 1, follows Kiesha, Shana, Melissa, Megan and Rachel as they hit the dating scene with their ever-growing baby bumps. A press release for the ten-part series, filmed in Los Angeles and North Carolina, states: 'Not even pregnancy will keep these women "out of the game".' Facebook

As this remote corner of northeastern Syria fast slides out of government control, many Syrians are bracing for what they fear will be another war, between the relatively moderate fighters who first took up arms against the government and the Islamist extremists who emerged more recently with the muscle and firepower to drive the rebel advance. The capture last month of the city of Raqqah, Syria’s first provincial capital to fall under opposition control, consolidated the gains of an assortment of mostly Islamist-inclined groups across three northeastern provinces. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad cling to just a tiny number...

If the Supreme Court can find its way through a dense procedural thicket, and confront the constitutionality of the federal law that defined marriage as limited to a man and a woman, that law may be gone, after a seventeen-year existence. That was the overriding impression after just under two hours of argument Wednesday on the fate of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has double-digit leads over either of Florida's favorite sons, former Gov. Jeb Bush or U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, in an early look at the 2016 presidential election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. By a 91 - 8 percent margin, consistent with margins found in other states surveyed by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University, Florida voters support universal background checks for gun purchases. Voters in gun-owning households support universal background checks 88 - 11 percent. Mrs. Clinton, who shows the most strength of any potential 2016 aspirant in Quinnipiac University's national polls,...

As Colorado goes, so goes the nation. With the culture and demographics of the Intermountain West so rapidly changing, this motto about my home state has become conventional wisdom in national electoral politics, and for good reason. After all, the square state is the capital of the so-called Rocky Mountain Empire, a region that is fast becoming the political equivalent of a test market for the whole country. And if it is true that the way Colorado goes is the way the nation as a whole goes, then America better get ready for some extremely large changes. Part of Colorado’s...

I am looking at buying my first astronomical instrument. I have a budget of under $150. I was thinking of these two as possibilities: 1: Celestron SkyMaster 20x80 Binoculars2: Orion SkyScanner 100mm TableTop Reflector Telescope Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks.

With plenty of two-income highly educated families, the D.C. region already has a reputation as one of the most affluent in the country. But the area is fast emerging as a home to the truly rich as well. High-end luxury retailers are responding. Brands such as Aston Martin are expanding their operations into the area — betting, for instance, that there will be plenty of customers who can afford the $280,000 sports car James Bond drives in the movies. Nearby in Tysons, a Saint Laurent store and the high-end electric car maker Tesla are also set to open their doors.

In 2008, long before stress tests and Dodd-Frank, then-Senator Barack Obama excelled in the rich enclaves where much of New York’s financial class lives. Obama made staggering gains among one-percenters in the wealthiest areas of western Connecticut, where as many as one-quarter of adult males work in the financial sector. In New Canaan, where Brian Williams owns a home and the median income exceeds $175,000, Obama lost by just 6 points after Kerry lost by 22 points four years earlier. Nearby Greenwich, where you can find Mel Gibson, Regis, and Madoff's kids, voted for Obama by 8 points. ..................................................... The...

Despite uncertainty surrounding the fiscal cliff and whether or not President Obama can make "compromise" a theme of his second term, one thing is for certain: the Affordable Care Act, widely referred to as "Obamacare" is going to take effect. The lion's share of the law is to be implemented on January 1, 2014. The major tenets that will impact Americans include the individual mandate and the pre-existing conditions clause that will not allow insurers to refuse coverage to anyone, even if they are in poor health. ......................................................... And once the law actually goes into effect it's the pre-existing conditions...

Top 10: 1: KSU2: Oregon3: Notre Dame4: 'Bama5: UGA6: UF7: LSU8: TAMU9: The Other USC10:FSU

Republicans say polls favoring Barack Obama are rigged. Democrats say polls showing Mitt Romney will win are a joke. I say any poll indicating Notre Dame won’t play for the national championship cannot be taken seriously. And yes, I mean the BCS. It cannot be immune to the insanity that strikes whenever the Irish are sniffing a title.

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: KSU3: Oregon4: Notre Dame5: UGA6: UF7: LSU8: The Other USC9: Louisville10: FSU The highest ranked Big 10 = 12 bowl eligible team is Nebraska at #16.

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: KSU3: Notre Dame4: Oregon5: LSU6: UGA7: UF8: The Other USC9: FSU10: LouisvilleHighest ranked Big 10 = 12 Bowl Eligible Team is Nebraska at 20.

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: UF3: KSU4: Oregon5: Notre Dame6: LSU7: the OSU with the cute mascot8: OU9: USC10: UGA The highest ranking bowl eligible Big 10 = 12 is UM at number 22

New Yorkers love to complain about how expensive their city is, but a new study reveals that the Big Apple is more affordable for middle class families than places like Cincinnati, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, or Portland, Oregon. New York is the tenth most affordable major city for middle-income homes -- thanks to high median incomes and the city's expansive transportation system, according to a report by the Center for Housing Policy and Center for Neighborhood Technology. New York wasn't the only surprise on the list. The most affordable city, according to the study, was Washington, DC, which is another notoriously...

Dressed in black shirts with faces hidden by helmets, ten men on motorbikes came to find him on a Saturday, after darkness fell. Finding the door bolted at his home in a pot-holed Athens side street, they smashed the windows, broke in and trashed the place. Then, their dirty work done, the neo-Nazi gang roared away into the hot evening. It had taken less than a minute for them to sound an ugly warning that foreigners were not welcome in Greece. Their target was Imam Shahbaz Siddiqi, a 42-year-old spiritual leader of the Greek capital’s 500,000 Muslims. ‘I was at...

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: U Florida3: Oregon4: KSU5: Notre Dame6: LSU7: The Other USC8: The OSU With Cute Mascot9: OU10: USC

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: Oregon3: The Other USC4: WVU5: U Florida6: Notre Dame7: KSU8: LSU9: OSU with the cute mascot10: UGA

When Errol Emrich drove by a Shell station in his San Jose neighborhood last weekend, regular gas was selling for $4.05 a gallon. On Monday, it was $4.15. On Tuesday, $4.25. And this weekend? Analysts say it could reach a whopping $4.40. Problems at California refineries have slashed supplies across the state, cutting fuel production and raising wholesale prices -- the price stations pay for their gasoline -- by as much as 73 cents, to levels not seen since 2007.

A Turkish official says a shell fired from Syria has landed on a home in neighboring Turkey, killing at least three people, including a 6-year-old boy. Abdulhakim Ayhan is the mayor of the Turkish town of Akcakale, which is along the Syrian border. He told Turkey's state-owned Anadolu Agency that the boy and a woman were among the dead in Wednesday's shelling.

On Monday evening, the BBC altered its programme schedule to broadcast an hour-long tribute to an old man who had died aged 95, with fawning contributions from the likes of historian Simon Schama and Labour peer Melvyn Bragg. The next day, the Left-leaning Guardian filled not only the front page and the whole of an inside page but also devoted almost its entire G2 Supplement to the news. The Times devoted a leading article to the death, and a two-page obituary. You might imagine, given all this coverage and the fact that Tony Blair and Ed Miliband also went out...

Beautiful, vivacious and fabulously wealthy, they were known as the Dollar Princesses. At the end of the 19th century, hundreds of eligible young women turned their backs on America and crossed the Atlantic, with a steely glint in their eyes. The only intention was to snare a member of the British aristocracy. It might all seem terribly crass but, in fact, these were matches made in heaven.

There is nothing quite like being a young rock musician walking into a good recording studio for the first time, with a record contract in your backpack, surveying the machinery. The towers of digital and analog sound-effect consoles, with their glowing gauges and blinking lights, they're here for you—paid for by the label, available to you because you cut a basement demo that made people see dollar signs. Over the hum of the amplifiers you can almost hear the whir of the industry, the interns flirting, the promotion person on the phone with the terrestrial radio person, the booking agent...

Renowned British left-wing historian Eric Hobsbawm, whose writing influenced students and politicians across Europe, died in a London hospital on Monday aged 95, the BBC reported. He died in the early hours of the morning in London's Royal Free Hospital, where he was being treated for pneumonia.

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: Oregon3: LSU4: FSU5: The Other USC6: UGA7: Notre Dame8: Kansas State9: West Virginia10: Florida

British people have long bemoaned the gradual encroachment of Americanisms into everyday speech, via Hollywood films and sitcoms. Now, "Britishisms" are crossing the pond the other way, thanks to the growing online popularity of British media such as Harry Potter, Downton Abbey and The Daily Mail. For example, BBC News reports that "ginger" as a descriptor of a red-haired, freckly person has shot up in usage in the United States since 1998. That's the year the first Harry Potter book, with its Weasley family of gingers, hit store shelves. The trend shows up in Google ngram searches, which track the...

Today’s women have achieved a goal that social commentators have inveighed against for centuries: economic in­dependence. Railed The Times of London in 1868, in opposing property rights for married women: “The proposed change would totally destroy the existing relation between husband and wife.” An American letter-writer declared in 1903: ........................................................ Into this gloomy landscape, however, strides Liza Mundy, her bold new vision encapsulated in The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love, and Family. Instead of being a castrating, unmarriageable harpy, today’s reproductively and economically free female, Mundy asserts, is the trigger for a...

I recently watched Starship Troopers for the first time. It’s brilliant, isn’t it? I can’t believe I’d never seen it before. If you can set aside the laboured subtext about militarism and the whole America policing the world thing, it’s a brilliant epic about love and the indomitability of the human spirit. And they’re all pretty hot, which helps. But I had another train of thought watching this movie. It reminded me of a guilty secret, and of a violent change in attitude I’ve had toward science fiction in the past few years, and toward Star Trek in particular.

When I recently called my mother to tell her that I was getting married, she was ecstatic. After all, my boyfriend, Chris, and I had been together for nearly 10 years, so he had long been part of the family. “When’s the big day?” she asked me. “In about 20 minutes!” I said, trying to sound perky instead of scared. Though we had decided to get married a few weeks prior, we told almost no one beforehand—not even our parents. And now, we were standing just outside the office of the man who would perform the ceremony. ..................................................... I love...

The striking Fisker Karma extended-range electric car has turned heads for months in our test program, from its distinctive design to its sci-fi hum soundtrack. During that time we've experienced far more than our share of frustrations. And in the final tally, the Karma scores a failing grade. The Karma ranks as our lowest-rated luxury sedan. Of all sedans, only three have lower overall scores: Chrysler 200, Dodge Avenger, and Nissan Versa SV. (Learn how we test cars.)

Multi-millionaire Ann Romney appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night, professing her love for wholesale retailer Costco, gushing, 'we love Costco!' The wife of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney told the NBC host that the pair regularly visits the chain, where customers can buy any number of products in bulk. She also said that the election of her husband, a Mormon, would signal that 'prejudices are left behind' just as the election of President Obama had done.

Coming in with an average SAT reading score of 496, 2012's graduating seniors have the dubious distinction of having attained the worst reading score since 1972. (For those test-takers of a certain age and test-taking history, "reading" is actually that part we knew as "verbal.") Regardless of what you call(ed) it, "The average reading score for the Class of 2012 was 496, down one point from the previous year and 34 points since 1972," reports the Washington Post's Emma Brown, gleaning numbers from the College Board, the organization that administers the test.

Top 10: 1: 'Bama2: Oregon3: LSU4: Florida State5: UGA6: Stanford7: The other USC8: Kansas State9: Notre Dame10: Florida

Ann Romney says fellow Republicans who’ve criticized her husband need to “stop it” and realize “how lucky” the party is to have Mitt Romney as its nominee. Ann Romney spoke late this afternoon to about 200 people, mostly women, who’d gathered for a rally in the store room of a central Iowa furniture business.

Marked by the U.S. Embassy seal, advertisements condemning an anti-Islam video appeared on Pakistani television on Thursday in an apparent attempt to undercut anger against the United States, where the film was produced. Hundreds of youths, however, clashed with security officials as they tried in vain to reach the embassy in Islamabad amid anger in many countries over the film's vulgar depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

Though tempting on recent experience, it would be reckless to assume that nothing of any lasting significance will happen at this autumn's three main party conferences, which begin with the Liberal Democrats this weekend. But it may be a pardonable exaggeration to say that the most influential event of the season could be done and dusted before Nick Clegg and his party even get down to business on Saturday. The annual conference of Britain's fourth party is unlikely to get more than passing attention when it gathers in Birmingham tomorrow for two days. But the UK Independence party, now to...

A 20-year-old woman who falsely claimed she was raped by three men because she regretted having sex with them has been jailed for two years. Rosie Dodd, of Nottingham, claimed the men, who were aged 21, 23 and 25, assaulted her at a home in Clifton, Nottinghamshire, in the early hours of a Saturday in June. The trio were arrested after Dodd claimed they had all raped her after she met them on a night out in the city - and they spent a total of nearly 50 hours in police custody before being released on bail.